A group for high school teachers and students interested in writing a grant to fund a local school project

This group will bring together high school teachers and students (must be 13 or older, please) who are interested in writing grants to fund local school and community projects. This course will run from March 15 through June 11, 2012..

Form your team + identify your project

Each participating school needs a teacher to coordinate the project and a group of students to do the actual work!

Then you need to brainstorm and identify a project that you want to fund. It can be anything you want. For example, you might set up a group to make a community garden. Or perhaps you have a school arts project that needs funding. Whatever you want to do is great!

Post a comment here that tells who is on your team and what your project is.

Within the first week we hope you brainstorm and provide a creative yet defining project that will change the face of your community. This could be school, neighborhood, or even a more distant community!

If you need examples do not be afraid to ask one of our listed participants for ideas or help in coming up with ideas! :)

Task Discussion

This David form Mexico City and I'm in the team that posted about the musical project in both Write the Grant and this page. Beasicly our plan is to have the budget to use it to get some books at teach the primary basics of music to kids in 4th and 5th grade. We plan to make it in a fun way such that instead of them having the view of it as an extra class, they see as something they can actually enjoy. Ww are also planing to purchse and create a study to which the students in the workshop would like to listen to music and different genres in order that we can tell them about each genre they are insterested in that way they appreeciate music a little bit more. The plan is to allow these children to like and listen all sorts of music in a way that would benefit them in both short term and long term appliances.

My question is thus, is there in Delaware, from the Student Grant Writing, people who are interested in this project and would be also interested in taking the project to a local school in Delaware and that way we could work together and exchanging methods in which music is taught in order to improve both groupd techniques to attain such a goal?

Group: Mel, Nick, Elizabeth Class: Ms. Dixie 3B -The idea for the grant that our group has decided on is to host the "Blue Moon: Battle of the Bands". Which would be a huge music festival in which the bands and performers pay for a spot to compete among themselves for a prize or prize money. The total profit that is made from the music festival will then be donated to a charity organization

Hello, this is Isaac, Regina, Ruben and Jaime fro the American School Foundation in Mexico City.

PROJECT- To donate art supplies and provide classes to a public school here in Mexico. We've found a possible sponsor (Target), willing to do exactly this. The main purpose of our grant is to get kids involved with different types of art and artistic styles. It encourages creativity and is also a way to free emotions. Public schools in mexico don't really pay attention to art and it is very important for children because it stimulates the brain in ways that other classes don't, so it will help them in the long run.

How to do this?- Find a public school that does not offer art as a subject/class and a teacher willing to give classes to them. We know what supplies we need, we just need a supplier and to find the costs of this and the teacher.

Our main goal is to get some desktops for a public school in Mexico. If it turns out to be too expensive is to get good books and materials for the children and teachers. Our school, the American School Foundation has a bunch of community and service programmes. Hogar Dulce Hogar is a small orfanage in Mexico city. Each Tuesday a group of orfans go to the school and the a groups of ASF students organizes all kind of fun activities for the children. We are really urged into helping their position and want to help the education so the kids could have better opportunities in their future.

Brainstorm ideas- Going to an orphanage and teaching them sports sponsored by Nike, Adidas, or Reebok. Open a gotcha (paintball) course accessible to most. Donate balls and sports equipment to a public school.

Project- CREATE A FUND BASED SOLEY TO HELP CRIT OR TELETON AS THEY ARE IN NEED. THE FUND WILL BE NAMED AEJJ HELP FOUNDATION. THE FUND WILL DONATE HELP TO THESE ORGANIZATIONS, BUT NOT ONLY THAT IT WILL PROVIDE HEALTH CARE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THOSE WHO CANT AFFORD IT.

How to do it?- Ask for money from a big corporation who wants to donate in order to help those in need. Ask for approximately 50,000$ in order to buy about 100 wheelchairs and donate them. This will be a great act of community service and be good in our conscience. After receiving the wheelchairs we will personally go to TELETON or CRIT and give the wheelchairs. Do this every year.

In order to make our project succesfull, we will need a good supplier in order to recieve the wheelchairs. We will need cooperation from the whole group, and cooperation from a company called heartwayUSA. http://www.heartwayusa.com/about-heartway

HEARTWAYUSA- We will depend on this company in order to recieve the supplies needed. This company might be the only sponsor we need, but if they are unwilling to help, we will use another supplier.In order to obtain these wheelchairs we would need to gain money from a fundraiser or a grant. http://www.heartwayusa.com/about-heartwayJVA MOBILITY- We will seek help and support from this company as well, as they are great suppliers. Both of these suppliers will help us get the actual wheelchairs and in order for us to donate them.In order to obtain these wheelchairs we would need to gain money from a fundraiser or a grant. http://www.jvamobility.com/ASF- We would want to do some sort of football tournament, or “olympics” in the school and invite about 50 people from Teleton to come watch. We will also charge a price for people to come support this tournament, this would sort of like be a fundraiser to help pay for wheelcahirs. We need the school to provide the athletic instalations. BANAMEX- If we can get a bank to suuport us it would be great. What better bank than the biggest bank in Mexico? They could also help us securing Centro Banamex to do a Fundraiser gala or dinner to help us in the grant. COLGATE- Colgate could also be some sort of sponsor and they could support us financially. Since they are a big company, this would be an incentive for smaller companies to invest in our project. THE WHEELCHAIR FOUNDATION- They are a foundation where you donate and you recieve a full grant on the wheelchairs. They could also provide support for a fundraiser which would help us in aquiring the wheelcahirs. http://www.wheelchairfoundation.org/involved/partnersFORTRESS- This company is one of the main investors of the Wheelchair Foundation, so if we provide a similar mission or ideal, maybe Fortress could provide us a grant and help in the creation of our Fund. http://www.fortress.com/

Hello, this is Carlos, Franco, and Adrian from the American School Foundation in Mexico City. What we want do do is very similar to the battle of the bands example done in Delaware. The reason is that recently, there was a blue moon festival at school and we noticed that there is already a lot of talent in this school. We also do not want to limit ourselves in just having bands from this school. We want to encourage as many people as possible from our community to come and participate. With the money we gather from this event, we want to donate it to special facilities that specialize in teaching people the art of music. So far the things we know we have to do are:

Gather bands or talents

Audition the bands and talents

Look for the charity we want to donate the money to

Hire people that can work the sound, stage, lights, etc.

Promote the event throughout the community

Ask the school board permission since we want to do this event at the soon to be opened fine arts center at ASF.

Overall we want to promote the art of music or even performing arts in general and the fact that people at ASF actually care about the ASF community.

One of the ideas we have are to get not just the “informal” talents from school like the bands that performed at the blue moon festival, but also performing arts classes such as:

This is a great idea. I'm the main person that contacts bands and etc. in Delaware for Battle of the Bands and it does bring in a lot of profit. You could try and ask local businesses who might be willing to help donate a few dollars to help with setting it up or help with promoting the event??maybe have flyers around town or ask local radio stations if they can put in an ad for you?? Also, ask friends and family to promote this and spread the word... after all, word of mouth is more effective then any type of ad you can ever have. Let me know if you need any help at all!

What sources can you find that will document the need, and maybe the statistics, of this need

to address this issue? (The need formore funding in the arts, theneed for a

more intensive awareness for the arts? Why is that important?)

You need several sources, and up to date, that can back your reason for this

being an issue needing addressed.

Try to provide a version in English of resources so Americans can see you are working for Mexican culture and to help change it for the better, yet reaching out a point to reach out to individuals and businesses from the U.S.to assist in this effort.

As someone born in the U.S, this is how I feel – I feel MOST Americans re arrogant and do not look/think the same way.They feel that to learn English is all they need, and to learn another language is to be something superior than others, rather than a benefit.Notice, I said some, not all, but I think this is a majority.However, I see the opportunity to grasp resources from businesses that seemingly will benefit the U.S. companies by donating, and if they feel you are making an effort to make things easier for them to donate (as simple as making an article in English too) that usually makes a difference.I

it is difficult to always think ahead and try to predict what to do to make it more accommodating or another happy in your requests, it is like a bad relationship!LOL!But in the grant writing process, it seems it has always helped to thing ahead and think of the things against it (kind of like debate) to be the most effective grant proposal standing when it comes to having a proposal accepted among thousands sometimes!

I think you should contact Sloan in Communications and see if you can get an interview for the FOCUS ASAP so this initiative will appear, also, Ms Kang, and Ms Tanka in Alumi affairs to get this info out to the families and see what they can donate

You need to get some target schools interested on making this opportunity available to some students in their schools, maybe contact the principal ASAP

and see what schools would MOST be interested in this.

I am forwarding all this to the students that are mentors and see what ideas they have as well.

Remember, listen to Ms Dixie’s instructions, I do not want to say GREAT JOB and then comment on something that goes against

what she wants to have done in her class, I am responding as an outsider to her class, remember!

Hi, I am Cesar, and my team (Luis Bosoms, and Christian Aguilar) and I would like to propose an idea for a grant. Ever since the Knoy 2012 campaign started, a group of friends and I started plannning the official movement in Mexico City, we didn't realize that it would take a lot of work and effort from our part. We knew that the posters mailed from the U.S. would be a bad idea, since 1) they would most probably arrive late, and 2) they were IN ENGLISH. So we have now decided to create and print our own posters, and that is whaat the grant is for, to create the whole campaign from sctratch here in Mexico.

What about an event to raise awareness and funds? :) A concert benefit like Live AID to get people together?

I poetry reading about the atrocities of children soldiers?

Why don't you...ask Sara Herrera or Esther Kook if, as lit magazie staff, we hold a public readng that people are being published in the literary magazine hold, and it would publicize people's readings/photos/art about this issue, and it would be a GREAT venue to promote the Kony2012 event? Have the theme of the night be - "Stop the violenceof children soldiers abroad" or something even broader?

The idea behind Kony 2012 is to make Kony known around the world for his deeds. People nowadays hear about blood and violence all the time in the media that they are kind of numb to it. They ignore the dreary and gloomy because they are blasted with it every time they turn on the news. The key is to make him into a celebrity with social media and spread the word with posters, and flyers. I mean, celebrities have power and influence right? You guys can produce Kony merchandise (bracelets, t-shirts, keychains, necklaces, figurines, pins, buttons, etc.) to raise awareness and funds as well. MAKE HIM FAMOUS!

Our team is made up of: Alvaro Gomez, Elias Litchi, Jeffrey Sorsby and Jose Maria Poo

Our project is as follows:

We want to help TELETON and CRIT by donating things they might need like for example wheelchairs and crutches in order for the kids who need them to help. Since they are quite expensive we would need to either create a fund for people and companies to donate or get a company to give us a full on grant with the expenses of the necessities paid.

Okay so start to comb the keywords like "disability needs for students" or "grants for disabilities" - What about a Special Olympics event that would raise money for these individuals? What about a 5k or a soccer (football) tournament to raise funds for these students, and havethese students with disabilities have front row seats? And a fundraiser too?

We've decided to approach many wheelchairs suppliers, a wheelchair foundation, Banks, multinational companies and investors to help with our projects. Also instead of just donating the wheelchairs we will create a fund named AEJJ Help Fund that will work all year every year to help those with disabilities. In order to get started with this, we need to introduce the fund by making a fundraiser gala or dinner.

Hi, we are Juan Pablo Solorzano, Roberto Barroso, Pablo Domette and Alejandro Struck and our project is the following:
- Create a recreational park for a poor community in Mexico in which people will have the opportunity to exercise and enjoy a healthy lifestyle and environment.
- Create a pamphlet that indicates how to properly feed a family on a daily basis, and give a copy of the pamphlet to each household mother, providing proper explanation on how to feed her family.

Our project’s goal is to combat a huge and rising problem in Mexico with the help of sports and proper nutrition, child obesity. Any comments or ideas would be really helpfull.

This is such a good idea...there was ne grant especially for creating a park - look through the grant opportunities, this is grea to incorporate environemental clubs and groups, espeicallyat UNUM too....

Also, work with the ABS Hospital and ANY social services in Mexico to help create the most needed addressed issues, they see these every day as care centers and hospitals of people that come in every day!

Our names are Maria G, Maria E, and Paulina R, and our project consists of helping the Make-A-Wish foundation in Mexico. This foundation helps children with terminal diseases to make their final wishes come true. We are truly moved by this cause because despite the terrible position this kids are put in, their simplicity is exemplary. Many times we do not realize how lucky we are simply to be alive, and these types of projects benefit not only those in the organization, but also ourselves through community service.

We will see to it personally that the money we receive will be donated completely to the Make-A-Wish foundation, and that it is used wisely. We will not only organize individual outings but also organize events in which kids get to interact with each other such as small parties yet always with medical supevisson . Our main purpose is to make this kids smile and enjoy every minute of their life.

We are focusing on kids that come from low income families and that live in Mexico City. Therefore we are targeting big Mexican company's that relate with the cause such as Cinemex , Papalote Museo del Nino, La Ciuad de los Ninos , Sabritas , Hasbro and Bimbo are some of the main examples.

I like this idea. I think that some real strengths is that you are working ot support a well-known and respected foundation (Make-A-Wish). I also like that you say that you will see to it personally that all the money raised will go to this group.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation identifies the families in need through special research that is conducted by them in communities in Mexico. Basically the organization already has families that are in need of this, and the money we can provide them will be put towards as many families as they can.

The only thing we need help with is finding a companies in Mexico that do grants in order to approach one of them.

We are Francisco, Angel, and Rodrigo from the American School Foundation in Mexico City, and we will set our Grant-requiring project to be the following:

Aiding less privileged communities by providing educational resources, like books for their local libraries. We can buy used books from multiple sources and channel them to the target library.

We can do this by:-Finding people who no longer need/want books who can donate (including ourselves)-Going to book stores to buy up-to-date material-Finding bundle deals online-Attending book giveaways, etc.

Donations, barnes and noble, and scholastic would all be great for this grant. Though, would these book be in spanish? Because if we get this grant, the people who are near the library probably won't know english, or atleast not all of them..

Our project is about writing a grant to get laptops or the cash to buy them and give them to public high schools students whom can’t afford technological tools to develop their education. Mexican public education it is known for being inefficient compared to private education so we believe that education should be granted regardless of the economic status of people and opportunities as well shouldn’t be reserved. We believe that it is right to reward the students with the best GPA of each grade with a laptop because it is a very useful tool, and eventually they will need it for their education and it’s a way to promote and inspire other students to give the best of themselves in their academic life by seeking for a higher education no matter their backgrounds.

This is a great initiative, how about taking it one step further - award a school outside of ASF with a laptop, and match it with someone in ASF that has one, and they can communciate and help each other academically - as each become partners - ? Could be kindof cool. What about students who have and can afford a laptop with the highest GPA, can maybe the process or individual meet certain criteria like - financial need, etc?

MacBook is a compact, full-featured notebook that offers great value. It features a sleek and durable polycarbonate unibody enclosure, and includes a built-in, 10-hour battery to stay productive all day without needing to recharge. Along with its NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and 2GB of memory, MacBook provides plenty of horsepower for everything you do. The Macbook has been the number one choice for Mac laptops in education.

This is a great idea. With everything now being internet based, it laptops are a good source to help students further thier educational needs and allow them to be caught up with scientific changes and technologically advanced.

Could you furthermore explain the idea you gave us of having a wireless interaction with the people owning laptops or PC's to us? How would we be able to do that, I really like that idea but I would like to understand it better.

Laptops or PCs would both be great but it think it is better to give it to the school. That way all or most students in the school will have a chance to use them instead of only indivduals. They can find ways to distribute them, etc. and to those who need them out side of school can just stay after school to use them. What do you think??

WOW! This is a great possiblity. This could be a form of therapy for some students emotionally damaged etc. Also, is there a school for the deaf in Mexico. It would be interesting to see if there was a way to reach them somehow, how could we let them experience music? (See the movie

Sounds as a great start to make this successful. We think it is a great idea to let deaf children learn music and experience it, why not even to be interpreters. We believe that music is a why to communicate ideas or feelings among humans, and even is considered as a language. Hence, the idea to work with emotionally damaged people does work as a great therapy to get emotions flowing and even getting rid of them. We can get in contact with some one, a teacher or a composer who might indeed be interested in taking part in this. Probably some teachers that go to the Conservatory at Polanco.

Hello, we are Mafer, Fer, Katie and Zuriel from the American School Foundation of Mexico and our grant project consists of the following:

Overall goal of improving the infrastructure of a selected public school by: - Creating safer environments by substituting health hazards - Installing better playgrounds - Providing water fountains with filters - Providing the necessary materials for teachers to instruct a better education to students

Wow - this is alot of exciting possiblities! It seems this might be maybe too large depending on how wide of an area you want to cover. How do you go about picking a school?

The last possiblity and the forst three are huge endeavors...what Mexican gorups operate in Mexico that would help with this? Which grants ( I know there are some) would offer funding for which of these?

I think mayeb narrow your final product goals a little to it is not so wide a goal at first? Does this make sense?

We want a public, the one near the school the only thing is that we have to go talk to them, to make sure if they will accept our purpose. the organization would be Becalos, and fundation Televisa Our goal is providing water fountains with filters and materials.

Here is a thought - since we have so many library cadets, maybe we could identify a few cadets and if you storyboard a film, and a series of items to make a package, we could get the library cadets and your groups t put together some things that could be made available in the library for all to access! Check out ISTE -- http://www.iste.org/

and research some international linrary organizations to see if they have some ideas of support materials too?

Between OIT, Mrs Fong, and myself, we could maybe create some ideas such as technology guidlines that are more user friendly? See Mary Bocaranda's movie on Utbe, "How to check out laptops! "